I don't know if I would call St. Augustine a joke, it is however sometimes over-hyped. Compared to a typical public high school in southern New Jersey the academic standard is higher, more AP Courses, elite university acceptances (eg. US News and World Report Top 25), and higher SAT scores. Furthermore there is a large focus on athletics, and perhaps some students are given special treatment because of this. The school is certainly not perfect. Much of the faculty is mediocre, and the average student probably is not much above that of any other high school, but the school does attract some of the most intelligent young minds in the area as well as deter students who have no academic ambition whatsoever. St. Augustine is a fine school, is it an Exeter Academy or TJHHST? Most-definitely not, but that doesn't mean it can't be very beneficial to an eager student who feels held back by the restraints of his public school system.
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